Funeral services were held here today for Rabbi Elkan Cohen Voorsanger, who served as senior chaplain with the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I and later with the Joint Distribution Committee in Europe. He died at his home here where he lived in retirement for the last three years. He was 71.
Born in San Francisco, the son of a rabbi, he was graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1913. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1914 and served at Temple Emanuel in Grand Rapids, Mich. Later he served as rabbi of Temple Shaare Emeth in St. Louis. When World War I broke out, he gave up his post at the temple and enlisted in the army as a private and went over to France with the first 750 Americans. He was successively promoted to sergeant, lieutenant-chaplain, captain and senior chaplain of the 77th division. He held the French Croix de Guerre decoration and several American citations, including the Purple Heart.
After the war, he was named overseas director of the Jewish Welfare Board and later served the JWB in World War II as chaplaincy commissioner. He went to Poland for the Joint. Distribution Committee in 1918. In 1934, after entering the business field, he was named superintendent of the bureau of compensation of the Chicago Public Works Department. In 1936 he was named director of finance of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and later was executive director of the Milwaukee Jewish Welfare Federation.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
